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Guenther Steiner was one of the first hired for Red Bull’s Formula 1 project in 2005, but he would not stay on the team for very long.
After purchasing the Jaguar team at the end of 2004, Red Bull sought to put the building blocks in place for their debut season the following year. Christian Horner was appointed as team principal, and he was tasked with setting the foundations.
Horner is one of F1’s best team principals of the century thus far, having led Red Bull to multiple championships alongside Adrian Newey and Helmut Marko. Steiner was one of the first to join the team alongside the Brit, but it soon became overcrowded.
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After Red Bull signed Newey from McLaren, the 60-year-old was asked by Dietrich Mateschitz to help set up their NASCAR project in the US. Steiner agreed, but later left the team at the end of 2008 after the idea failed.
Following his departure, he remained in the US and began making plans for his own F1 team. Sure enough, come 2016, Steiner had set up Haas and taken them to the grid, with the American outfit still on the grid today.
Guenther Steiner says leaving Red Bull was the ‘best thing’ to ever happen to him
In an interview with FanAmp, Steiner discussed his time with Red Bull and the reason for his exit. He explained that leaving the team was his ‘lucky moment’, as it opened the door for him to explore the American market.
“No, for me it worked out perfectly. I mean, it became crowded and for me, now looking back, that was my lucky moment when I left because it opened, for me, the door to the States,” he said.
“I always wanted to live in the States when I was younger but never could because you need a work visa, and it opened that avenue for me and once I was here, now you cannot get rid of me anymore.
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“So first of all, I opened my own company, a composite company. Now we’ve got 300 people, which is pretty successful company and then it gave me the opportunity to start an F1 team.
“If I would have done the same in Europe, I wouldn’t have succeeded because I wouldn’t have found an investor and if I would have tried out of Europe to find an American investor, I don’t think he would have done it with me because it’s too far away.
“It’s too far apart, the world and I needed to learn the American culture to find somebody to speak the same language, because if I speak European culture to an American businessman, he’s not going to do business with me. And for me, it was the best thing happened in my life, to leave Red Bull.”
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Guenther Steiner admits regretting not wanting a stake in Haas
Steiner served as Haas team principal from 2016 up until his exit at the end of 2023. He was pivotal in putting the team together with Gene Haas, but he admits that he wished he had bought a stake in the team, given the rise in valuations after Liberty Media’s takeover.
“Obviously, with hindsight, now it’s easy to say because you haven’t got that advantage. But, would I try to put in that I want a piece of the team? Yes, I would put that one in.
“But at the time, I didn’t want it because I didn’t have the money to invest in it. So I needed to be clear about that one. So I cannot demand something.
“But if I would have known that the teams would be worth, within five years, billions of dollars, obviously you would make yourself more valuable.”
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